[OT-ish] nfs v. samba

[Robbo]

On Fri, 2005-10-28 at 09:25 -0400, Todd Slater wrote:
> I've been trying to come up with a system to share files in my home
> network consisting of a desktop computer and a laptop, using a
> wireless router. Both are Breezy, but I sometimes boot my laptop to
> WindowsXP, but don't plan on needing to access files on my Breezy box
> from XP.
> 
> I recently set up NFS to share files linux to linux. After mounting
> the shared directory I tried transferring some files; the transfer was
> incredibly slow. A folder of jpegs about 5.5 MB took well over 4
> minutes. I say this is incredibly slow because when I ran Mandrake
> (RIP) with samba, I could transfer a 700 MB file in like 6 minutes or
> something (Windows and linux).
> 
> I've also tried scp/sftp, which is slower and seems kind of silly for
> what I'm after anyway.
> 
> I googled a little and found a few threads about NFS being slower that
> samba, but mine seems *really* slow. I'd consider running samba
> instead of NFS, but for Breezy-Breezy that seems kind of silly, too. I
> found reference to OpenAFS, but I'm afraid it might be a bit over my
> head.
> 
> Soooo, might I have a problem with the way NFS is set up that would
> explain the slowness? Any recommendations for sharing files on my
> network?

First we should see if it's not a network issue by checking if your are
getting the max bandwidth you should be getting. 

Install iperf on both boxes (you may need to enable the extra
repositories is you haven't already).

Run on one box "iperf -s" and on the other box "iperf -c 192.168.1.1
-d" (change the ip address to the one of the other box), and then do it
the other way round so you run "iperf -s" on the box that you did "iperf
-c ...." on.

The results should be near (about 90%) your network speed (unless your
using wireless which I'm taking it your not if you can transfer a 700Mb
file in 6mins!).  If they are way down post us your results...